Scotland is a unique country.
Hruuuuuummmmmmmmmmm. Hruuuuuummmmmmmmmm. Photo by Diliff/Wikimedia Commons.
It's the only country where roughly 1 in 8 people have red hair. It's the only country where you can travel 1.7 miles by commercial airliner. And it's the only country where people enjoy eating this:
Haggis is actually good, and I will fight you if you disagree. Photo by Jonathunder/Wikimedia Commons.
As if that weren't enough, Scotland nabbed yet another "only" this week when Scottish Labour Party leader Kezia Dugdale casually revealed that she has a female partner...
Photo by Jeff J. Mitchell/Getty Images.
...which appears to make Scotland "the only country in the world where most of its political party leaders are openly lesbian, gay or bisexual," according to a report in The Guardian.
Photo by Jeff J. Mitchell/Getty Images.
Dugdale (center in the above photo, in blue) and Scottish Conservative Party leader Ruth Davidson (just left of her), as well as Scottish Green Party leader Patrick Harvie (far left), and UKIP Scotland leader David Coburn have all come out as gay or bisexual.
Why is this such a big deal?
Well, it's historic! So, you know. That's pretty cool.
And it has real-world implications. Scotland's is Europe's most LGBT-friendly country, and that's probably not a coincidence, considering some of its most powerful lawmakers are LGB (though not T).
Scotland's first same-sex marriage ceremony in 2014. Photo by Mike Runnacles/Getty Images.
Various U.S. states continue to pass laws that target LGBT folks, like North Carolina's anti-trans "bathroom law," which forces trans men and women to use restrooms that correspond to their sex as assigned at birth, or Mississippi's "religious freedom" law that allows businesses to discriminate against LGBT customers.
That might not be the case if we had more LGBT legislators running the show.
It also helps reverse a several-millennia-long trend in Europe and the U.S. for entrusting power pretty much exclusively to straight white men.
(With a few notable exceptions).
It's not just Scotland that's entrusting leadership to those outside the white-hetero-male-ocracy:
Angela Merkel, the German prime minister who presides over the most powerful economy in Europe, is a woman.
Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images.
Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir, the former prime minister of Iceland, became the first openly LGBT head of government in 2009.
Photo by Halldor Kolbeins/AFP/Getty Images.
And then there's this guy, of course.
Barack ... Obomo? Obano? Ogummy? Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images.
In Scotland, the face of power is increasingly not-straight. In Germany, it's female. In the United States, it's non-white. Forget the last millennium or so — that's a huge change from even just 40 years ago.
A generation of children in all these countries will grow up knowing that it's normal for their high-powered government officials to be LGBT or for the head of government to be a black man or woman.
Slowly but surely, the notion that you have to look a certain way, love a certain way, or be a certain gender to hold power in the West is becoming obsolete.
But is it actually, though? Or is that just some hopey changey pablum?
Well, yes and no.
There are currently 20 women in the U.S. Senate. That ties a historic high! But also, it's not remotely close to the percentage of women in the general population. Only one openly gay person has ever been elected to the Senate, and only six sit in the House of Representatives.
Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin is currently the only openly gay U.S. senator — and the only one ever. Photo by Astrid Riecken/Getty Images.
But some countries do way better on this! The Rwandan and Bolivian parliaments contain higher percentages of women than men, and in Europe, the Nordic countries are generally killing it on gender equality in government. The U.K. Parliament has over 30 out LGBT members (of 650 total).
Will Scotland's achievement magically transform governments around the world so historically marginalized groups like women and LGBT folks are better represented?
No. But it's a good first step.
It's like (Notorious) Ruth Bader Ginsburg said, when asked when there will be enough women on the Supreme Court:
Here's to continuing to climb that ladder.
There's a reason why some people can perfectly copy accents, and others can't
Turns out, there's a neurodivergent link.
A woman in black long sleeve shirt stands in front of mirror.
Have you ever had that friend who goes on vacation for four days to London and comes back with a full-on Queen's English posh accent? "Oooh I left my brolly in the loo," they say, and you respond, "But you're from Colorado!" Well, there are reasons they (and many of us) do that, and usually it's on a pretty subconscious level.
It's called "accent mirroring," and it's actually quite common with people who are neurodivergent, particularly those with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). According Neurolaunch, the self-described "Free Mental Health Library," "Accent mirroring, also known as accent adaptation or phonetic convergence, is the tendency to unconsciously adopt the accent or speech patterns of those around us. This linguistic chameleon effect is not unique to individuals with ADHD, but it appears to be more pronounced and frequent in this population."
Essentially, when people have conversations, we're constantly "scanning" for information—not just the words we're absorbing, but the inflection and tone. "When we hear an accent, our brains automatically analyze and categorize the phonetic features, prosody, and intonation patterns," writes Neurolaunch. For most, this does result in copying the accent of the person with whom we're speaking. But those with ADHD might be more sensitive to auditory cues. This, "coupled with a reduced ability to filter out or inhibit the impulse to mimic…could potentially explain the increased tendency for accent mirroring."
While the article explains further research is needed, they distinctly state that, "Accent mirroring in individuals with ADHD often manifests as an unconscious mimicry of accents in social situations. This can range from subtle shifts in pronunciation to more noticeable changes in intonation and speech rhythm. For example, a person with ADHD might find themselves unconsciously adopting a Southern drawl when conversing with someone from Texas, even if they’ve never lived in the South themselves."
People are having their say online. On the subreddit r/ADHDWomen, a thread began: "Taking on accents is an ADHD thing?" The OP shares, "My whole life, I've picked up accents. I, myself, never noticed, but everyone around me would be like, 'Why are you talking like that??' It could be after I watched a show or movie with an accent or after I've traveled somewhere with a different accent than my 'normal.'
They continue, "Apparently, I pick it up fast, but it fades out slowly. Today... I'm scrolling Instagram, I watch a reel from a comedian couple (Darcy and Jeremy. IYKYK) about how Darcy (ADHD) picks up accents everywhere they go. It's called ADHD Mirroring??? And it's another way of masking."
(The OP is referring to Darcy Michaels and his husband Jeremy Baer, who are both touring comedians based in Canada.)
Hundreds of people on the Reddit thread alone seem to relate. One comments, "Omfg I've done this my whole life; I'll even pick up on the pauses/spaces when I'm talking to someone who is ESL—but English is my first language lol."
Sometimes, it can be a real issue for those around the chameleon. "I accidentally mimicked a waitress's weird laugh one time. As soon as she was out of earshot, my family started to reprimand me, but I was already like 'oh my god I don’t know why I did that, I feel so bad.'"
Many commenters on TikTok were shocked to find out this can be a sign of ADHD. One jokes, "Omg, yes, at a store the cashier was talking to me and she was French. She's like 'Oh are you French too? No, I'm not lol. I'm very east coast Canada."
And some people just embrace it and make it work for them. "I mirror their words or phrase! I’m 30. I realized I start calling everyone sweetie cause my manager does & I work at coffee shop."